April

 April was a busy month but it was dominated by baseball.  The kids had a lot of fun this season, even if their teams' records didn't show it.  Ben had a terrific coach who taught him a lot and it was fun to watch him grow, improve, and steal lots of bases.

We had day games...

...and night games.

Scored some runs...

and celebrated with the team!

 We had a little more trouble getting excited about Alex's games because the kids weren't utilized in their best positions, so they got slaughtered nearly every game.  Alex played some great games, though, and he still learned a lot and did well playing coach pitch.

He played some infield...

...and did some catching.  He had his most success playing first base and shortstop.

I can't believe how these kids are growing!  I loved Ben's long pants this year...he looked so mature.

(until you see the rest of the pictures)

Ben's idea of the perfect breakfast buffet - a plate full of bacon and a few cookies.

The kids had an evening fun run at school this year and Alex loved getting to do a few laps with his sweet teacher.

Go, boys, go!

The big news was the enormous amount of rain that fell before tax day and flooded many of the Houston suburbs.  We got 13" of rain in about 12 hours and the kids were thrilled that school was cancelled.  We still got out a little to check out the roads and see how the neighborhood ditches could handle the water (very well, thank goodness!).  Our neighborhood and those around us were fortunate that no houses flooded, even though some streets were underwater for days, but older neighborhoods just a few miles away didn't fare so well.

The flooding was so extensive that school was cancelled Tuesday and Wednesday as well, then finally they just cancelled the rest of the week.  The kids thought they had hit the jackpot!  And the best news (for them) was that the state excused the school district from having to make them up.  Naturally, baseball was cancelled all week because the fields were underwater as well, so we found lots of other ways to keep ourselves entertained. 

Face swap was a lot of fun!  And a tiny bit creepy.

 This one makes me laugh every time!

 

We made a trip to the natural science museum...

 ...and visited iFly for the first time to use the vouchers that Santa left.  It was SO much fun!!

 

 

 

 

We also redeemed Matt's birthday races at the indoor kart racetrack.  Alex was so happy to finish in first place on his final race.

Ben finally finished reading his Animorph series - all 54 books!  We were so proud of him!!  Dyslexia is no match for this kid.

The kids had (another!) day off school for teacher inservice, so we enjoyed the nice weather with a trip to the zoo.

One of our favorite things about April is that the monarchs start passing through again and we love to bring the big caterpillars inside so we can watch the butterflies emerge and let them go.